Arena of Valor (Honor of Kings) has finally failed in the West. And therefore, according to Reuters, the Chinese publisher Tencent wants to abandon this version of the game to its fate.
Sources told Reuters that Tencent refused to promote Arena of Valor in the US and European markets and even dissolved its local marketing staff. The reason is the low income of the game compared to its Chinese version. In the West, Honor of Kings brought in only $3 million in the first year. China’s Honor of Kings earns $5 million every day.
Also, Tencent is not satisfied with DAU mobs. The game is played daily by only 100 thousand European users and 150 thousand American users. Such a low interest in the title (despite the fact that the Chinese Honor of Kings is recognized as the largest in the genre) is due to a poor marketing campaign and mistakes made during the development of the Western version.
Disagreements between Tencent and Riot Games also played a role. A few years ago, the California studio said that the early version of Honor of Kings too much resembles League of Legends. Due to Riot’s complaints, the Arena of Valor marketing company in the USA and Europe was frozen for two months.
Nevertheless, recently there was a rumor about a joint project between Tencent and Riot Games. Allegedly, a year ago, the companies joined forces to develop a mobile League of Legends. Details of the project are unknown.
As for the western Arena of Valor, without the support of Tencent, as one of the sources stated, it remains only to “live on or die naturally.” The publisher itself is now planning to revise its strategy for promoting games abroad. By the way, Tencent declined to comment.
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